


She's gone, he's gone

by TheCrazyFriend



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2020-08-14 06:29:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20187817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCrazyFriend/pseuds/TheCrazyFriend
Summary: This is what happens between the conclusion of the battle of Starcourt and the farewell two months later





	1. Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> My take on what happens between the conclusion of the battle of Starcourt and the Byers family farewell two months later, possibly the future after that as well

The machine was blown into spare parts, the doorway was closed and the amalgamation creature was dead, still smoldering in what remained of Starcourt Mall though it had been a few hours since the battle of Starcourt. The Party had saved the world, for the third time. The burden was almost too much to bear for the kids and they had struggled, fought and bickered toward ultimately saving their own lives and the lives of everyone around them but there was still one person who stood alone in the remains of the mall. _Please don't let it be you_. The voice echoed in the person's head, an echo. The person sat down next to a bloodstain and reached out for it, pulling back suddenly without touching it, having remembered how it had writhed and changed shape under the control of the Mind Flayer.  
“You shouldn't be in here, miss.” A quiet voice spoke, “all the survivors are supposed to be getting medical attention outside”  
“Please... Please, wake up” was all the young teen could repeat. Cleanup crews in hazmat suits had already entered the building to clean up the mess that had been the amalgamation before it had been killed by the closure of the doorway. Blood and guts were leaking out all over the floor of the mall amongst remnants of used fireworks. 

Suddenly a pair of gentle and warm hands made contact with the girl’s sides from behind, gently applying pressure to under her arms to encourage her to stand. Blindly, the girl was pulled to her feet by the warm hands that then snaked around her tummy to pull her into a tight, almost crushing hug. “Come on” a gentle feminine voice encouraged as the owner guided the teen out into the cool night air. Several ambulances were parked haphazardly amongst the military vehicles that had arrived since the conclusion of the battle, a few helicopters dotted here and there. “Let's get you checked” the warm voice continued to soothe the teen as she guided her over to the waiting ambulances. 

“Maxine!!” a voice screamed. The redhead looked up, her eyes still red and bloodshot from all the crying. Susan, her mother was rushing toward them. “Maxine!! We were told you were here and that something had happened... I mean I haven't seen this many military guys in one place before! They wouldn't even let us into the mall.”  
“M-mom” Max stuttered slumping over in the other girl's hands and the other girl had started to struggle to hold her up. Susan ran forward to pull Max in for a hug but she weakly gripped the other girl's arms in order not to be separated so Susan helped her lower Max to the ground instead. Max sniffed a huge sniff and wiped her eyes, trying to clear them of the tears that still ran down her face.  
“I don't believe we've been introduced” Susan’s eyes had shifted from her distraught daughter to the girl who her daughter was holding on to as if her life depended upon it.  
“El” the other girl provided quickly. She no longer needed to support Max's weight since the girl was now leaning against her with her head on El's shoulder so her hand moved to brush the redhead’s hair soothingly. “El Hopper” she smiled a small smile before returning to the much more important task of soothing the redhead who was still shaking silently  
“How come you two were here?” Susan asked  
“We had something we had to buy” El lied  
“Really? The mall shut hours ago” Susan replied disbelievingly

“Susan, what the hell?! What's going on?” Neil marched up to them. “Maxine? What's going on” even the abusive Neil Hargrove paused at the scene before him, his stepdaughter did not cry, not ever.  
Max took one look at him, shook her head and went back to squeezing the brunette tightly, the brunette had quickly become her rock in the grief she felt over her stepbrother’s death and how he had died. “E-El” she breathed  
“I'm here, Max. I'm here” El soothed, pulling Max closer  
“Susan?” Neil repeated slightly more irately, the man was not used to being ignored  
“This is El, apparently” she replied

“I-I'm sorry. I-I couldn't” Max looked up at her mother, her face one of sorrow  
“You couldn't what, sweetie?”  
“I couldn’t save him!!” she shrieked  
“Save who, Maxine?” Susan’s facade of calm had faded slightly, she was worried about what had happened  
“B-BILLY!!” she screamed, “it got him, mom. He became a F-Flayed and... He sacrificed himself to save El from the Mind Flayer's avatar!” as the shock of what Max had said washed over Neil and Susan, the shock of what little bit they understood of what Max had said at least.  
_Billy has sacrificed himself? What the hell is a Flayed? Who the eff is the Mind Flayer_  
“I'm sorry mom, he’s g-gone. He told me he was sorry before he passed... I-I’m pretty sure he meant he l-loved me” Max broke down into a new wave of sobs as all the grief and pain was let out all at once. The grief of losing her father, yes he was still alive but Max didn't know if she'd ever see him again, the pain caused by Billy's anger and aggression toward her and finally the grief of watching Billy die as he bled out on a cold mall floor


	2. Chapter 2

“Thank you for your time, Mr. and Mrs. Hargrove.” Sam Owens spoke as he stood up in the converted semi that served as his office while sorting out the mess from the Starcourt incident. It had been several days since the whole Starcourt incident and Max hadn't been home in days, she was sleeping with the girl she introduced as El and whom Doctor Owens called 'Eleven’ and ‘Jane’ in the Wheeler boy’s basement since the other girl had very few other places to go and at the very least it was familiar to the brunette who Max had stuck beside since the whole thing with the mall. They had been asking too many questions of everyone involved and that had led the white-haired scientist guy Sam Owens to invite them to his office to answer some questions and explain a few things. He couldn't say too much, but he reiterated that Billy had become infected with a deadly infectious agent that had killed him in the end and that was why they were keeping the body under quarantine since it was no mere sickness that had killed him. He also said that the other missing people were suspected to have been taken down by the disease too and that the kids had found out about it, quickly learning that the best way to occupy those that had been infected was to throw fireworks at them until they stopped fighting back. He also explained how brave Max and the kids had been, going into a situation that they knew to be dangerous to save the girl called Jane. Owens didn't even try to explain why he had called her Eleven but they suspected it was a nickname the boys and Max had given her

The Hargrove parents had met Owens soon after the conclusion of the Battle of Starcourt, along with meeting most of the families of the people who had once again played a part in saving the world from the Upside Down; the Wheeler parents and little sister who had some limited knowledge about some of it, not that they'd spoken about it much, Dustin’s mother and, much to Neil Hargrove’s distaste, Lucas’ family though the kids kept their distance from their families. After the customary fretting and fussing from their parents, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas and Max chose to clump together with Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Lucas’ younger sister Erica, the brunette girl whose name they didn't understand and Joyce Byers where they were talking in quiet tones about something only they knew about, Max and El comforting each other. Owens had approached them with a grandfatherly smile on his face, a smile tainted by regret. “Hello, my name is Sam and I worked with Chiefo” he smiled fondly at the memory then added a helpful “Chief Hopper” to explain who he meant to the newbies. “He was Jane’s father” the man being who he was was much better at slipping into lying without thinking about it too much but he pointed out the girl he had called Eleven before.  
“Chief Hopper is dead?” Susan asked while Neil continued to watch dispassionately, he couldn't really say he felt much about the loss of the police chief when he was just getting over the shock of what had happened to his son. He was shocked to hear that Billy was dead, no matter how badly he treated the young man  
“I'm afraid so. We haven't found a body just yet but it's possible he was killed by the same thing that killed your son” _Either that or all those Russians, or that portal gun thing_.  
Neil merely shrugged. “What was Maxine doing in there?” he promptly demanded.  
“Probably some late night shopping” Owens shrugged dismissively. He knew why they were there, but he couldn't tell the supposedly grieving parents  
“Maxine said something about William being... Uh '_flayed_'. Do you know what she meant?”  
_Damnit_. “that's what the kids called that sickness, they were the first to discover it and Joyce Byers called me to help sort out out”  
“How exactly did Joyce Byers get a direct line to a governmental scientist?” Neil demanded angrily. He hated not being one of the people 'in the know’. He had heard the rumors about Joyce’s son, Will the Zombie Boy who had disappeared for a week and returned... Changed. Maybe that was why?  
“I'm sorry but that's not exactly my place to say. Now, If you'll excuse me, I gotta go speak to the kids” Owens quickly retreated to the group he had gotten to know in the aftermath of the second incursion by the Upside Down

“Evening” he stated solemnly, giving the group of kids his best supportive smile. He immediately noticed just how young one of them was, younger than Will had been when he first met him soon after the Demogorgon took him  
“Doc” Joyce forced a smile for the man, she was grieving the loss of Hopper as much as Eleven was.  
“Are y'all unhurt? Do any of you need medical attention?” He asked, eyeing the bright white bandage wrapped around Eleven's leg. “What happened, Jane?” he asked  
“Mind Flayer caught my leg” she mumbled. “Have you found dad yet?” she asked, quickly waving away the man’s concern  
“I'm sorry. I think he was vaporized when the Portal Gun exploded, Jane”

Jane's breath hitched and she buried her head in Mac's chest, sobs overtaking her entire body. He was gone, Hopper, the first man to treat her as more than a test subject, was dead. Max rubbed the girl’s back comfortingly and promised she wouldn’t leave her.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment or kudos...


End file.
